Oxford University would anchor major Marin County...

1of9A car travels along Herring Drive on the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

2of9Architect Mark Cavagnero goes on a walking tour of the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

3of9Library exterior on the campus at Strawberry Point in Marin County, which is leased by North Coast Land Holdings to Olivet University.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

4of9Exterior of a chaplain's office door on the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

5of9An administration building on the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

6of9Library interior on the Strawberry seminary campus.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

7of9Library interior on the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

8of9Library interior on the Strawberry seminary campus.Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

9of9The entry of Continuing Care Retirement Community at the former Baptist Seminary campus in Marin County.Photo: North Coast

The fight over the redevelopment of a former seminary campus on Strawberry Point in Marin County has focused on all the usual sticking points, including traffic and neighborhood character.

But lately the dispute has taken on an unusually highbrow accent as word has spread that Oxford University, the prestigious institution that has educated British prime ministers and other world leaders for over 1,000 years, is in negotiations to open a center for advanced study on the property, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations.

The facility — which would convene academic, policy and business leaders around technology issues — would be part of a controversial mixed-use development on the former Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary property, a 120-acre campus nestled on a hillside in Strawberry, an unincorporated district between Tiburon and Mill Valley.

In addition to the Oxford center, the project would include 234 units of housing, 47 of which would be affordable, as well as a 150-unit continuing care retirement community and 84 acres of open space. The property features rolling lawns, lush oak trees and views that stretch from downtown San Francisco to Richardson Bay to Mount Tamalpais.

Several sources involved in the negotiations confirmed that the leading candidate to take over the campus is an affiliate of Oxford. The Chronicle has agreed to withhold the names of those involved in the talks in accordance with its source policy. Those involved in the talks signed a nondisclosure agreement and could not confirm the talks publicly. An Oxford spokesman said that the university “has no interest in creating a second campus,” but that it has “many rewarding partnerships abroad.”

The latest proposal for the Strawberry Point project, expected to be filed with the Marin County Planning Department before the end of the year, comes after a long battle between the property owner, North Coast Land Holdings, and neighbors, who have pushed for a smaller project that would generate less traffic.

Neighbors rejected an earlier scenario that called for housing along with a new campus for the private Branson School, currently located in Ross, and are determined to fight the new proposal, according to attorney Riley Hurd, who is representing the neighborhood, where homes sell for well above $2 million.

Chapel interior on the Strawberry seminary campus in Mill Valley, a few weeks before Christmas.

Photo: Yalonda M. James / The Chronicle

Project architect Mark Cavagnero said North Coast has made many concessions, agreeing to build fewer housing units than previously approved and to create a college with fewer students than attended the Baptist seminary. At the behest of neighbors, the developer agreed not to build on several of the most valuable parcels, including the top of Chapel Hill.

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Cavagnero, who lives in nearby Mill Valley, said the fight has “been a big, big, big taste of NIMBYism the likes of which I’ve never experienced.”

“There is no property anywhere near this size anywhere in Southern Marin, if not all of Marin, that would be available and zoned for housing,” said Cavagnero. “This is important not only for the housing we can build — workforce housing, affordable housing, senior housing — but also on an exemplary basis. If we do a really nice project here, it could help all of these projects coming up in Marin where neighbors’ instinct is to say no.”

From the late 1950s until 2015, the Baptist seminary trained divinity students and missionaries on the site, where it built a large academic building, a library, a dining hall, a 50-unit dorm and about 211 apartments. While the seminary had approvals to build 100 more housing units, a gym, a 1,200-seat chapel and an administration building, it never did.

Enrollment declined in the 1990s, and by 2015 the school consolidated its West Coast operations in Orange County.

North Coast bought it for $85 million in 2013 and leases it to Olivet University, which has about 120 students and 15 faculty members, said Campus President Matthias Gebhardt. The housing, which is in poor condition and would be replaced, has been rented out at well below market rates to a variety of residents, most of whom are not affiliated with Olivet.

Hurd, the attorney for the 800-member neighborhood group, said residents have also “given a lot” of concessions — agreeing to the retirement community and supporting the continuation of the current day care center among other things. He said North Coast’s plan is overly ambitious given traffic realities.

“They are willing to accept change, but they want the character of the Strawberry community they bought into to be preserved,” Hurd said. “Putting thousands of cars on the road cuts against that.”

Instead of trying to do housing, the senior retirement community and an institution of higher learning, the developer should “choose two,” he said.

“It’s like the Coco Chanel quote: ‘Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off,’” he said. “You’ve got too many things going on.”

Neighbors say traffic in the area has become a nightmare over the past decade. “It’s an area that can’t handle a lot of traffic and it’s already congested in the afternoon,” said Bob Hendry, who lives just below the property.

A traffic study commissioned by neighbors found the proposal would generate 4,000 daily trips, compared with 2,200 under Olivet and 1,600 when it was the seminary.

Residents say that they support the senior retirement community, but that the academic use needs to be scaled back from 700 students to 300 or fewer. They also argue the housing should cater only to the students and facility — not the general public — as was was the case when the seminary occupied the site.

Resident Josh Sale, who lives on Seminary Drive, said that “re-creating that self-contained character is really important to us. We are not here to tell them to maximize profit or to maximize solving of regional problems. What we care about is how does it fit into the character of the community.”

North Coast spokesman Charlie Goodyear rejected the idea that the seminary was “self-contained,” noting that it had over 900 students and only 211 housing units, so many students commuted to the property. He said North Coast envisions upwards of 50% of the housing occupied by students or faculty —whether from Oxford or another institution.

He also said that North Coast would like to house as many students as possible — upward of 50%.

The current plan allows up to 1,000 students on the site, although North Coast has agreed to cap the number at 700. Residents said that even 700 students will generate too much traffic. The developer says the seminary had as many as 950 there in the 1980s.

Cavagnero said that the North Coast could make more money by simply subdividing the site into about 50 single-family luxury homes, which would fetch millions, but decided that denser housing and a campus would be better.

Cavagnero envisions a walkable hilltop community where parking would be underground, freeing up space for pedestrians. Seniors, students, professors and other residents would share the neighborhood.

Oxford, if it ends up part of the project, has tentatively agreed to share the dining room with retirees and to create an arts center in the former library, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

Goodyear said that the environmental study, which will be started once the country determines that North Coast’s application is complete, will help iron out the various disputes.

“We have faith in that process and we are happy to participate in it,” said Goodyear.

J.K. Dineen joined the San Francisco Chronicle in 2014, focusing on real estate development for the metro group, a beat that includes land use, housing, neighborhoods, the port, retail, and city parks. Prior to joining The Chronicle, he worked for the San Francisco Business Times, the San Francisco Examiner, the New York Daily News, and a bunch of newspapers in his native Massachusetts, including the Salem Evening News and the MetroWest Daily News.

He is the author of two books: Here Tomorrow, about historic preservation in California (Heyday, 2013); and the forthcoming High Spirits (Heyday 2015), a book of essays about legacy bars of San Francisco.

A graduate of Macalester College, Dineen was a member of Teach For America’s inaugural class and taught sixth grade in Brooklyn, N.Y.